Below is my latest list of Hot Wheels top 100 cars.  Updated as of January, 2023 after more than a year of time testing my collection of over 2,300 cars across many brands, including a large collection of fast Hot Wheels cars (based on my experience and also researching YouTube racings channels and other racing sites).  Certainly though there are more cars to test and new cars being released.  ​

Hot Wheels of course is the leader of the diecast world.  The brand started in 1968 and has been releasing sets every year since.  The inventory of Hot Wheels cars is vast, but there are specific castings, wheels types and series that are faster on the track. ​ 

Key notes/considerations:

• I race on a two-lane, 27 foot Magic Derby track (equivalent to about one-third of a mile).  The Derby track is 22% wider than a typical Hot Wheels orange track, allowing me to race more car sizes/scales.  I categorize my cars into speed tiers with 5-Stars being the best. The Top 100 consists of all my 5-Star performers, plus the top 4-Star cars. The 5-star performers all have times under 2.500 seconds. 
• I only count the fastest casting in my rankings for a specific car/brand.  For instance, instead of counting all the very fast Probe Funny Cars, I only recognize the fastest among them. This makes things more interesting to me, as I don't end up with so many of one model, let alone the same exact car, in my rankings.  I will though call out some of the next fastest examples when detailing each ranked car.  Note that for vintage cars I do make exceptions (in other words, they qualify even if there is the same casting in another series).
• I've applied graphite to the cars, which really brings out the speed potential for diecast.  I'll go into more detail on that in the future.  Some cars only improve slightly, but others improve significantly when dry lubes applied.  

Please see information on the home page for more details on testing method, speed tiers and other details.  

Observations:

• Some great vintage representation in the Top 100 including:   
  • 9 Ultra Hots from the 1984-1986 series
  • 8 Blackwalls from the 1970's, 1980's and into the 90's
  • 6 Hot Ones cars from the 1980's
  • 2 Redlines from the early 1970s (Noodlehead and Short Order)
  • 1 Speed Demons car from 1986 (Evil Weevil)
  • 1 mainline release from 1989 (Sol Aire CX4)
• There are 10 Faster Than Ever (FTE) cars, all from 2005 or 2006
• There are 9 Character cars in this elite group with Star Wars and Marvel cars having the best representation
• A good balance of weight classes with 24 Heavyweights, 26 Light Heavyweights, 36 Middleweights, 16 Welterweights and 1 Featherweight (Salt Shaker).  See the home page for breakdowns on the weight classes.
• The funny cars are over-represented among the Top 20, leveraging good balance and heavy weight to generate more speed.  Many of the funny cars also benefit nicely from graphite.

Fastest Hot Wheels Cars
5-Star Cars

Next Fastest Hot Wheels Cars
Top 4-Star Cars